Jaan Reitav & Celeste Thirlwell - Putting Trauma to Sleep [Trauma + Sleep]

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Putting Trauma to Sleep: Attachment-Based Neuromodulatory Interventions for Stabilizing the Brainstem

Sleep disturbances and trauma are intrinsically linked—so why aren't therapists trained in sleep repair?

Anyone who has suffered from trauma knows what it means to have sleepless nights. In fact, research has shown that at the heart of both trauma and sleep disorders is a dysregulated brainstem with heightened sympathetic nervous system activity. Yet, current trauma treatments largely ignore this profound interconnection between trauma and sleep. Putting Trauma to Sleep proposes that incorporating a therapeutic TABS model (traumatic events, attachment disturbances, bodily symptoms, sleep repair), therapists can better aid their clients in both healing from trauma and restoring sleep.

With practical clinical approaches and illustrative case examples, sleep specialists Jaan Reitav and Celeste Thirlwell demonstrate how therapists and their clients can integrate sleep repair into trauma work by enhancing parasympathetic nervous system tone and actively attending to shock reactions in the body. Dysfunctional sleeping patterns have been ignored for too long within the psychotherapy sphere; this indispensable resource will transform readers' understanding of both sleep and trauma therapy.
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/215616088-putting-trauma-to-sleep

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Perfect timing! I listened last night. Fell asleep halfway through? Woke up a couple of hours later (not sure). Couldn't get back to sleep. Thought about everything I'd heard up til I conked out. Fascinating. The idea that the diagnosis of the symptoms related to a traumatic experience can also be traumatic... geeez, trauma can cause trauma, it compounds and compounds. I gotta find the time to get into this more.
Thankyou SO!

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Had a discussion tonight on zoom group pointing out that calming techniques for our autonomic nervous system can also be triggers. I proposed that coming from such volatile childhood experiences, calming can Also become a trigger as "calming" can actually precede greater danger. The "deadly silence" of a caregiver before the abuse, for example. Or stress conditioning where the anormal is "calmness" because it is so rare. Parasympathetic activation actually becomes an alien state in complete contrast to the norm.

This ties into the idea of trauma piling on more trauma. An honest diagnosis actually makes the symptoms worse. In no other aspect of health is accurate diagnosis detrimental to the individual... except potentially Cptsd. (This is where the double-edged blade of dissociation really comes into play: it cuts both ways, saves lives but only by reducing existential "living" to a manageable factor.)

And sleep, a crucial process of integrating experiences is rendered dysfunctional due to the very traumatic experiences that so desperately need integration.

Too much is too much...

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I didn't listen to the preview myself. I started with the audio book. So you likely have heard thing's I haven't yet. I'm about 5 hours into it and I'm really impressed by the depth of this book. The author's even mention in utero influences and developmental attachment is a central theme in the book. No quick fixes or easy scoring.

You make a good point about the calming techniques. That coincides with a thought I had the other day about what relaxation has come to mean to us (starting from early development). It equals unsafety or worse for us. It's so obvious, yet it never really made sense to me like it does now. There has to be a very good perceived reason not to be relaxed, since it's so incredibly expensive to be switched on all the time, even during sleep. It's not just a wrong turn our system took at some point. It's also about what keeps driving that "choice". The association our system has with relaxation itself is off. This is a bit of a light bulb moment for me.

It literally never felt right for me to just relax. On the other hand, I did the Reitav PMR exercises the other day and I actually did feel deeply relaxed afterwards.   It's basic progressive muscle relaxtion. I'm starting the six week training with that YT video he recommends tomorrow.

Dissociation complicates things off course. May I ask if you dissociate if you are getting (somewhat) relaxed? That would be an immensely cruel mechanism.

With regards to the effects of getting a diagnosis, I can pitch in that I've experienced retraumatisation as a result of misdiagnoses and being approached accordingly by health care professionals. Still today, I have not been officially diagnosed with what I actually suffer from. That diagnosis does not exist here. This has an impact on how I communicate about it to the outside world. Even to health care professionals. Sometimes I almost feel like a closeted attachment trauma sufferer. This stuff is so complex and all pervasive that few grasp just how devastating it is. That situation is detrimental to my wellbeing itself. And so on and so forth. We will get out of these "dark ages" one day, but I'm not sure how much of that I'll see happen in my life. 

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I looked up the book both in France and the US. Fifty dollars/euros either way. I'm letting that percolate a bit. (Money reflection is a current topic for me... :-)

Sorry about having to self-censor with health pros. I know all about that. Often I throw caution to the wind as I know I'm not actually going to get ANYTHING from the person. Nothing to lose kind of thing.

It struck me reading your post SO, dissociation is all about absence of consciousness... so I'm starting to realize that I actually have no idea the extent of my dissociation.

Do I dissociate when more relaxed? That's an awesome question. I had to really think about it. Finally, no, I think I only dissociate when I'm stressed (but that's nearly always unless I'm alone). When I do my somatic work I re-center and come into myself. This actually sweeps away a bit of the blockades to my mental capacity.

So body work is ever so slowly chipping away at that impeding mountain. And it's working for me. Ever so slowly.

My setback today is stomach flu. For sure I'm in a weakened state.

And my daughter pumps my energy sooo much. You can't do ANYTHING directly. Everything has to be subterfuge. Diversion and flanking movements. She seriously taxes my mental capacities getting healthy things going on (and avoiding/denying unhealthy stuff). It's Herculean... and I'm no Hercules, mentally OR physically :-) But I diverge.

Something else I wanted to mention. I think my preverbal trauma actually used Sleep as protection. As an infant I believe I used sleep to escape the danger. And I think I learned early, fast and incredibly effectively "how" to sleep to escape. But the effects of the danger then presented themselves ten-fold upon waking. In the past even blue light and evening coffee wouldn't effect my sleep (though alcohol stopped my dreaming).

Despite this "competence" there have been times and periods when my sleep was dysregulated. But I often didn't make the association with events in my life. Hence my obsession with awareness. For me there is still clearly innumerable things I'm just still not aware of. The list is long. Sleep, which was off my radar for so long has re-entered my awareness.

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Woke up in the middle of the night. Went to the bathroom but couldn't get back to sleep, or so I thought. Got going on my morning routine when my alarm finally went off. During my Pmr (progressive muscle relaxation) exercises I began to remember snippets of dreams. So I must have slid back into a dream state at some point during the night. But what I find interesting is what memories get stirred up when I do my Pmr. Often I start to cry. I believe this exercise is clearly putting me in connection with my visceral and corporal being and probably giving the memories that are stored in my body the possibility to filter to the surface. Or filter to my subconscious where dreams can then do the business of processing and integrating. This is all theory, but I want it to happen... and I need that hope...